Jeanie in a bottle: Shanghai, Beauty of the Orient

The next five days or so were spent in the city of Shanghai, the Pearl of the Orient. I was really impressed with this vibrant and very urban city, as it was almost the complete opposite of Beijing. For one thing, it wasn't dirty and polluted (sorry, Beijing!). The population of people in Shanghai were also very different. People there were mostly high-powered business corporate people, presumably working with huge companies and banks in their 60-storey high office building. Plus, infrastructure in Shanghai was top-notch. The metro/tube system was very very efficient, and extremely clean! The roads were large and wide, and at one point in the city centre, we counted a 6 roads/flyovers on top of each other! (In KL, the most we have is 3!) And the view at night is gorgeous.. the whole city lights up at night and it's amazing to watch the world pass you by as you sip on your nightcap. (I'll elaborate on this point in a little bit)

We stayed at JW Marriott, Shanghai, which is (again!) a 5-star hotel. It's a really unique hotel because the lobby starts at the 38th floor, so you can imagine how tall the building is! Because we were staying in the executive suites, we got a room on the 55th floor, and spent most of our time in the exclusive Executive Lounge on the 59th floor. Now, this is why I said that it's great for viewing the beautiful Shanghai city landscape stretch out before your very eyes. Having said that, I must admit I much preferred the Grand Hyatt in Beijing, simply because I didn't get to have my own room in the Marriott. :( (I know, getting a little spoilt, aren't I? hehe..)

This is our very unique hotel - my mom reckons it looks like a rocket!

This is me having breakfast at the Executive Lounge. (No, I'm not devouring my food, if you look closely, my eyes are closed because this picture was taken at 7 am!!!) This is purely to show you how high up we were, and you can see the top of many buildings in the distance!

The other great thing about our hotel is location, location, location! A 5-minute walk away from our hotel is the ever-so-famous shopping street, Nanjing Road. It's 1.5km long, and stretches all the way to the even-more-famous Bund. Obviously, we spent lots of time shopping and walking around.. it was really fun!

Nanjing Pedestrian Mall/Nanjing Road - a shopper's paradise!

Quite nice, huh?

Mom secretly took this picture of me trying on my many pairs of shoes.. we bought 6 pairs in the end - 3 for me, 2 for my sis and 1 for mum!

We also went for a cruise on the Huangpo River, and obviously, spent some time on the oh-so-famous Bund taking loads of pictures! Unfortunately, as I don't have a super-camera, these are the best my camera can take.. sighh..

It does look beautiful, doesn't it?

On the cruise ship.. messy hairstyle courtesy of the 'Strong Winds' saloon!

This is the famous Pearl City Telecommunications Tower situated in Bu Dong. The lights on every floor change every night, it's so cool!

We also visited the very famous, Yuyuan Garden. Wow.. this was literally, like being transported into a different era. It wasn't really a garden, just a very big area of shops selling all kinds of things (mostly for tourists, of course). It was really fun.. Also, one of the most famous 'Siao Long Pao' in Shanghai is located here.. Yum!! But definitely the most impressive thing of all was the architecture of this whole 'garden' - instead of the usual modern buildings you'd expect to find in the middle of Shanghai city, there were so many ancient-looking buildings, amidst ponds adorned with statues of ancient goddesses. I can go on, but a picture paints a thousand words, so here are a few thousand words worth of them! ;)

Look at the amount of people in this place!

I was awestruck!

So beautiful.. if only there weren't so many people, it'd be tranquil too!

The past meets the present..

So Chinese, eh?

Look at all the fish!!!

We met up with one of mum's colleagues who now lives with her family in Shanghai, after her husband had to move here for work. They were lovely hosts and brought us out for a very fancy dinner at a huge Shanghai restaurant - we had lobster, scallops, fish and loads of other yummy stuff! I don't even like seafood and I enjoyed the meal! It was definitely an experience for me as it had a marketplace-like concept - you ordered your food downstairs (dead or alive) and they'd cook it the way you wanted it and served it to you upstairs in a private room. Posh, huh? :)

Cool, huh? They had roti canai as well, but it costs 28 RMB... that's RM14 per piece!!!

Yes, yes, I have a fascination with round doorways..

Never seen live abalone before

Eek, we certainly didn't eat these - water beetles! They also had all kinds of gory stuff like sea intestines, frogs and turtles!

No trip to China was complete without a visit to see its most prized possession - the Giant Panda. Yes, I forced my mum (and the other Uncle) to bring me to go see the great beast. There are an endangered species, and only less than 2000 left in the world, so who knows when's the next time I'm ever going to get to see one? This was one sight I wasn't gonna miss!